After leading April in migrant encounters, San Diego Sector seeing May numbers soar

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) -- The Border Patrol's San Diego Sector surpassed 37,000 migrant apprehensions in April, more than any of the other nine sectors along the southern border, and Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel said her agents already apprehended 8,303 migrants from 66 countries during the first week of May.

San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who has been critical of the ongoing migrant influx in the region, said Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed.

"We ought to be able to manage the numbers that are coming across," he said. "One of the other things we are seeing in San Diego County is boat landings, boats just being beached up on our beaches -- about four per week, and about a dozen people jump into a neighborhood. We don’t know who they are, where they are going or what their intentions are.”

Desmond is also concerned with the amount of money being spent on migrant services.

"The County of San Diego spent $6 million on a migrant drop-off site that was open for four months," he said.

The facility closed in February after the county stopped funding it.

It was operated by a non-governmental organization that used some of the funds to buy airline tickets to help the migrants get to their final destinations.

"Border Patrol was Uber for the migrants; we became the travel agents," Desmond said.

With the county recently receiving more than $19 million from the federal government aimed toward migrant services, Desmond believes the money can be better spent in other ways.

"I think that money should be spent on the vetting of people and securing our beaches so we don't have boats just dropping off," he said. "We should be securing or at least allowing our Border Patrol agents resources so they can properly vet people."

Desmond hopes the money doesn't end up supporting another migrant facility.

"Unfortunately, at the rate we spent money before, the $19 million is going to be able to get us one year, so after that what happens? It's going to be back on our laps."

But some advocates like Pedro Rios, with the American Friends Service Committee, believe the money should be spent on the migrants.

"People that have endured so much and continue to suffer. If we can alleviate that suffering momentarily, we’re doing something that’s good for them," he said.

Rios told Border Report it's everyone's responsibility to make sure asylum-seekers — people he says have every right to be here — are taken care of.

"There are laws in the United States that say when someone is fleeing harm and wishes to seek asylum they have the right to do so, whether it’s entering through one of these locations or showing up at a port of entry it’s their right under the Constitution and international agreements to seek asylum.”

Rios insists people have no reason to fear asylum-seekers, especially those being released by Border Patrol agents at public locations around the county.

"Everyone who is being dropped off at our public transportation system is dropped off with paperwork indicating they’ve been processed, they’ve been vetted, and their backgrounds have been checked," said Rios. "They have a court date, they are responsible for showing up for that court date and providing information about where they’re staying.”

One thing Rios and Desmond agree upon is that a solution has to be found.